Born Again Swindonian

Hello listeners. Here we are with an update in the blog section: http://swindonian.me/category/eating-drinking-coffee-etc/

I absolutely LOVE a miniature train - of any description - they evoke something so visceral. Whether they are ones you sit astride or the ones you sit inside. In fact - extending the genre - wherever there's a miniature train, a funicular, a monorail or even a cable car - I have to go on it. I'm not entirely sure why this is. Perhaps it stems from childhood holidays in Butlin's chugging round the campsite on Puffing Billy. Maybe it's connected to being of a generation that can remember 'proper' trains with carriages, corridors and sliding doors and windows that opened so you could lean out and get soot smuts on your face.

I popped into Eggelicious recently as is my wont, and fell into conversation with an interesting chap who works at English Heritage over near STEAM and the Outlet Centre – and there may well be a blog post in there somewhere – but to return to the raison d’être of this particular blog post… Sharing the counter and ‘breaking bread’ with your neighbour is very much what Eggelicious and its new sister ship E2, soon to open in Wood Street, is all about.

The newest coffee shop in town, Dark Room Espresso, is gaining ground as a cool place to go.There’s certainly much to delight the coffee lover here and in the plethora of coffee shops around Swindon generally.

Hello listeners. Here we have the second installment of posts featuring just a few of Swindon's roundabouts and the reasoning behind their names. In the first post - Round and Round - I looked at roundabouts that are related, by dint of name and location, to some of Swindon's industry. This time around it's pubs. Unsurprisingly, what with coaching inns in days gone by often being on road junctions, a number of Swindon's pubs are situated on or near to roundabouts thus giving the planners a convenient handle for said roundabout. So on a somewhat dreek and dismal day, @Swindondriver, Swindon bear, Penny penguin and myself set out on a second EXPOTITION to check them out.

Today, in the cause of giving moral support - and the prospect of getting some cake - I accompanied a good friend (and Swindon resident) of mine to Faringdon where she had entered some of her baked goods into a bake-off being held there for Cancer Research. Yes, I know - where's the link to Swindon in that - apart from that we both live here? Well, surprisingly enough in more ways than one.

I tell you. I swear to your God and mine that I walk about with my eyes shut half the time. I've mentioned in my writings on here more than once, how I've managed to not really notice things. Well, some things are easier to miss than others for sure but you'd really think I'd have noticed a Mini climbing up the wall of an office block wouldn't you?

At the end of part 5 of this series, Kim and I had reached Nexus at Freshbrook, at which point we called it a day as we were ready for dinner. We'd been out for hours and had a great time but had still only visited 5 out of the 7 sculptures itemised on the tour.

In part 4 of this series my companion and myself visited 'Hey Diddle Diddle' which is in The Prinnels, West Swindon. I explained about spending the last twenty years seeing but not really 'noticing' that sculpture from the bus and never realising the significance of it - which is a bit shameful when you think of it. Well I'm sorry to say that my chagrin doesn't end there. Oh dear me no! The situation with this next one is very similar I'm sorry to say. Even as my friend and I were reading the 'bumph' about this sculpture I still wasn't making the connection - and 'connection' is actually very apposite indeed. It was only as we approached Freshbrook that I realized what we were going to. Doh!